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    Brush Back
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    Brush Back
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    Brush Back
    Audiobook13 hours

    Brush Back

    Written by Sara Paretsky

    Narrated by Karen Peakes

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Chicago's V. I. Warshawski confronts crooked politicians and buried family secrets in the gritty new novel from New York Times-bestselling author Sara Paretsky.

    No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she'd be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that's precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo's plea for help.

    For six stormy weeks back in high school, V. I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister, Annie, to death. Stella Guzzo was an angry, uncooperative prisoner and did a full twenty-five years for her daughter's murder.

    Newly released from prison, Stella is looking for exoneration, so Frank asks V. I. for help. V. I. doesn't want to get involved. Stella hated the Warshawskis, in particular V. I.'s adored mother, Gabriella.

    But life has been hard on Frank and on V. I.'s other childhood friends, still stuck on the hardscrabble streets around the dead steel mills, and V. I. agrees to ask a few questions. Those questions lead her straight into the vipers' nest of Illinois politics she's wanted to avoid. When V. I. takes a beating at a youth meeting in her old hood, her main question becomes whether she will live long enough to find answers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 28, 2015
    ISBN9781501231285
    Unavailable
    Brush Back
    Author

    Sara Paretsky

    Hailed by the Washington Post as “the definition of perfection in the genre,” Sara Paretsky is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago.

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    Reviews for Brush Back

    3.5/5

    96 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I’ve been a fan of Paretsky’s novels since being introduced to them by my mother back in the mid-1990s. Not only are they well put-together crime novels with a likeable protagonist, but Warshawski – and Paretsky, by extension – wears her politics on her sleeve. And they’re politics I pretty much agree with. It’s not entirely political, however. Given that these books are set in the US, and moreover in Chicago, corruption plays an important role and Warshawski continually battles against it. It features in Brush Back, of course, but the novel opens with a completely unrelated incident, one which, it transpires, was indirectly caused by corruption. A woman from Warshawski’s old neighbourhood is released from prison after serving twenty-five years for the murder of her daughter. She now claims she is innocent, more so she claims the actual killer was Boom-Boom, Warshawski’s cousin and much-loved ice hockey star who was murdered in the second Warshawski novel, Deadlock, published back in 1984. Warshawski is rightly affronted, but she is involved in another case, also centred on the same neighbourhood. Of course, the two are linked, and it’s all to do with a local councillor who’s as bent as they come and another man, an old protege, who looks like he’s got a shot at power. When you start a Warshawski you pretty much know what you’re going to get, and Brush Back delivers that as effectively as any of Paretsky’s novels. It’s a good addition to an excellent series, and more people should be reading them.
    • 5/5
      This was my favorite book in this series in a while. It had all my favorite characters from all of this series. I look forward to reading the next in this series.
    • 2/5
      A poor offering. I have read most if not all of Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski novels and generally look forward to the next. However, this one is genuinely boring. I found it quite difficult to force myself to finish it. After doing so I found the climax and conclusion to be weak; a definite letdown. I was wondering if this was an idiosyncratic reaction; perhaps I have just tired of Paretsky and Warshawski. However, a friend who is also a Paretsky fan spontaneously commented over dinner one evening that she had read Brush Back and found it to be a great disappointment. So my advice is to read it at your own risk.
    • 5/5
      VI Warshawski is back and better than ever

      I have always liked the characters and stories written by Sara Paretsky but this series is my favorite. I even liked the movie with Kathleen Turner as the gutsy Chicago Private Eye. Brush Back is a page turner and kept me up two nights running enjoying it's plot twists
    • 4/5
      A bit preachy. All these authors who have had long careers with the same detectives are beginning to sound a little preachy
    • 4/5
      A series that never grows old with me, although I worry that VI can not take many more episodes of being beaten up . After all she must be aging after 17 books, I know I am.Chicago's south side, where VI grew up is the focus of this book. All the usual characters return, including Boom Boom's goddaughter, who is now been taken over by VI. Fast paced, will keep you reading. Plenty of twists and turns.
    • 4/5
      Good story. The only reason I'm giving it a four instead of a five is that Grozny is in Chechnya which is thousands of miles from Uzbekistan.
    • 4/5
      V.I. Warshawski, the PI with nine lives...well that's probably on the low side. She attracts trouble like a magnet but always manages to get through it. One tough lady. In Brush Back, she finds herself up against a Russian mob enforcer, but even more dangerous the Chicago Southside political machine that has extended into the Illinois state legislature. An old friend has asked for her help. His mother, a not very nice person, was convicted of murder 25 years ago but is out of prison and proclaiming her innocence. She has always hated the Warshawski family, and her implication of V.I.'s famous hockey-player cousin, now deceased, makes it personal. There is nothing VI won't do to protect her family and loved ones. or their reputations.. Her motto should be "Don't tread on me or those I love." This is written in the style Sara Paretsky fans are use to. Her writings are more detailed and complex than many of the popular mystery/suspense/thriller writers. of today. You will find them well written and well proofed. They are always full or twists and turns and danger. What they are not full of is graphic sex and profanity. If you are already a fan, I think you will enjoy this book. If you're not, give it a try. You might find yourself with a new favorite author.
    • 5/5
      Sara Paretsky proves once again that she is one of the best mystery writers out there. This book is a real wild ride. I read through the book at breakneck pace. The tension never lets up from the first page right up to the very end where Ms. Paretsky treats us to such a menacing ending. What she does best is her characterization. Her bad guys are really bad guys and VI always finds herself on the wrong side of them and she's quite often in the unenviable place of being on the outs with Chicago's finest at the same time. In this book we get a good look at VI's young growing up years in the rough south end of Chicago. An old flame asks for her help to gather information to help get an exoneration for his mother who has just served 25 years in prison for killing her daughter who was Frank's sister. It goes against everything VI wants to do. She does not want to dredge up all the memories of her childhood when her mother and father were both alive, but she is forced into helping when some old acquaintances start bad -mouthing her family and herself. At great risk to herself ,she sets out to clear the name of her famous cousin Boom Boom Warshawski who was a stellar hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks. I love VI. She's such a champion of the truth and will do anything to help people who come to her for help. Non-stop action, and the developing relationship between VI and her musician boyfriend Jake were what kept me flipping pages in this book. I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I like the series. My only complaint is that the narrative did not research characters. Conrad is African American. The Italian and whiny accent was uncomfortable to listen to. Overall, VI nines lives Warshawski saves the day again
    • 4/5
      Paretsky is a really good writer who brings South Chicago to life. I wasn't a huge fan of the "headstrong teenager rushes into trouble and needs to get rescued" subplot, but overall I really liked this.
    • 4/5
      Frank Guzzo, V.I. Warshawski’s high-school flame and old friend of V.I.’s late cousin Boom Boom, a former star on the Chicago Blackhawks, asks our heroine to help exonerate his mother, who’s just left prison after serving decades for beating her teenage daughter Annie to death. Stella Guzzo, who maintains her innocence, has to be one of the least sympathetic characters in crime fiction. And she’s none too happy about what she sees as V.I.’s intrusion into her life. Stella hates all of the Warshawskis, living and dead, and sets out to destroy their reputations. More to prove the untruth of allegations Stella makes against Boom Boom than to exonerate Stella, V.I. starts asking questions of everyone involved with Stella’s trial. Pretty soon she finds herself in real danger. Seems she’s opened a hornet’s nest by looking into the actions of some of Illinois’s most powerful politicians. While all this is going on, V.I. Warshawski is hosting her late cousin Boom Boom’s goddaughter Bernadine Fouchard while she explores the city to help decide whether she’ll attend Northwestern University. Bernadine is a headstrong young woman and, of course, ignores V.I.’s warnings not to get involved with the investigation.Brush Back started slowly, but kept on gathering speed until near the end when I thought it went a bit out of control before it got back on track. Still, it was a compelling read. Readers who fancy a tour of Chicago’s South Side and its history will find it even more interesting.